Strong 3G coverage has become an essential requirement for any small business, especially when it comes to important client phone calls. However, many rural areas in the UK still lack even the weakest of cellular signals. While the new 4G network - which promises far better coverage - goes through a tumultuous legal process, Nextivity believes its Cel-Fi RS2 3G booster can provide a solution.

The booster consists of two parts: a 'window' unit, which sits in the area of the building with the strongest 3G signal, and a 'coverage' unit, which goes wherever you want the signal broadcast to.

This isn't the most aesthetically pleasing network equipment - the window unit has the look and feel of a cheap toaster, and peeking inside reveals an ugly antenna array that the Cel-Fi was obviously keen to disguise.

Looks aside, the unit works as intended. Our testbed was an old, semi-subterranean cottage in the Devon countryside - a lovely place, but one where getting a 3G signal usually means calling from a very specific spot in the south end of the house.

With the Nextivity Cel-Fi RS2 extender, we were able to extend the 3G network to the north end, and freely browse the internet and make calls. It's impressively powerful too, and able to beam the signal through the thick walls.

The signal did drop occasionally, but this was more due to the undulating Devon landscape - and undulating Devon 3G signals - than the unit itself. Our unit was locked to Orange and T-Mobile networks, with other units available for other providers such as Vodafone and O2. This could be an issue if your home or business uses different networks for all its handsets.

Verdict

Priced at over £450, it's hugely expensive, and there could be some sense in waiting for 4G to be deployed and simply sticking with a landline or Skype for calls. But there are also a lot of businesses - particularly rural iPhone-centric start-ups - that would benefit from the Nextivity Cel-Fi RS2's technology.

Wireless networks can be fantastic - eliminating the need to trail Ethernet cables across our homes just to connect to the internet, or stream media from one PC to another. But often their Achilles' heel is range. Stray too far from your wireless router and you'll soon be faced with a huge drop in speeds and stability, and finally no connection at all.

The Netgear WN3000RP Universal Wi-Fi Range Extender promises to alleviate these problems by connecting to your existing network and then giving it a boost to reach further afield.

Setting it up is very easy - we just plugged it into a wall socket and used WPS (Wi-Fi Protected Setup) to connect our test router to the extender by just clicking the WPS button on each.

Its claim to being universal is true, for the most part - we had no problems connecting this up to a non-Netgear router.

WPS support can be somewhat flaky with some older routers, however, and without WPS, set up is a slightly longer affair, becuase you'll need to connect a computer directly to the extender's wireless network.

Deciding where to place the extender is a bit of an inexact science, and can pose problems for some. You need to find a spot where your existing Wi-Fi network's range begins to wane - but it still needs to be able to get enough signal in order to boost it. The Netgear Universal Wi-Fi Range Extender doesn't come with much help in this regard, so installation may result in a case of trial and error.

It doesn't help that a strange design choice has resulted in the extender's body being situated below the plug socket. This could result in the extender being awkward to install if your home's plug sockets are close to the floor.

Verdict

The Netgear WN3000RP Universal Wi-Fi Range Extender does what it says on the tin: it extends a wireless network that it'sattached to. But there are a few weird design choices that sometimes make this device frustrating to use.

High-powered external Wi-Fi adapters such as the Janus WLAN USB adapter can greatly extend the reach of your wireless network – HornetTek claims a range of up to 1,000 meters.

It maintains a strong wireless signal in taxing conditions too. Connecting to your Mac via USB, setup isn't helped by a complete lack of Mac instructions and a software CD that hides the OS X version of its WLAN management app in a folder marked 'Other drivers'.

If you've set up wireless networks before, getting it up and running shouldn't be too problematic, but beginners should wait until HornetTek publishes a decent tutorial.

The device sits neatly on your desk, but could use a bracket to mount it on your MacBook's lid.

In our tests, Janus did exceedingly well, outperforming its rival USB highpower wireless adapter Wi-Fire. With our router in a thick-walled Victorian house, it achieved a 95% signal strength from the garden shed, while Wi-Fire managed less than 20% and AirPort failed to connect at all.

It regularly found substantially more networks, and in our Ping test, was 44.8% faster than AirPort and 36.8% speedier than Wi-Fire.

HornetTek Janus High Power 802.11 b/g/n WLAN USB Adapter is ideal for situations where you struggle to get a wireless connection. Just make sure you know how to set it up before you buy.

You know the problem with living inside a house? Throwing wireless signals through brick walls is mighty tricky. What you need is either cardboard walls or a WiFi booster then, right?

Well, I've got to say that I'm not entirely convinced.

I live in a house in Bath that was built at the turn of last century and as such is built of pretty solid rock. With my cheapo Virgin Media router in the front of my house I get practically no signal in my bedroom, so Galaxy Link's booster should be the answer.

Unfortunately my cheapo D-Link router has antennae you can't replace so that was a write-off straight away. But that wasn't the booster's fault, so I tried a different router that came with removable antennae.

This new, less-cheapo router meant I now had decent signal in my bedroom. However, there were spots where it wasn't so good, so hopefully the booster would help there, I thought.

Except it didn't. No boost, no extra li'l bit of signal, no nuffin'. At £36 it's not going to break the bank if your router is a bit poo and you're after a boost. But it's not chump change either.

So the fact that it did nothing in my stone house would seriously annoy my wallet gland. If you did have cardboard walls then the 5dBi signal gain might help, but then how many beggars in carboard boxes are that fussed about their wireless network?

Virgin claims to offer at least 4,600 hours of VoD and its seven-day catch-up service comfortably beats those of Tiscali TV and BT Vision by encompassing BBC iPlayer (including HD with shows displayed in a modified version of the standard iPlayer interface), ITV Player, 4oD, Virgin Media 1, Living and Bravo.

Top tier perks

'Virgin Central' is a showcase for episodes of popular and new series (including HD) and broadcasts from Virgin's V Festival.

Unlike BT Vision and Tiscali, only subscribers to its top tier XL TV service get free access to Virgin's archive – TV Choice – which otherwise costs £7 a month. This hosts entire series of comedy and drama shows like The Sopranos and Torchwood as well as children's shows – some in HD.

Being cable-based, the service is unfettered by the bandwidth restrictions of BT and Tiscali so has more HD on offer for those with Virgin's triple-tuner V+ box PVR.

Filmflex offers films in standard and high definition. Newer releases appear from within six months of cinema release. Rentals range from 99p to £4.99 for HD and can be watched as often as you like within 24 hours.

You can also watch HD and SD movies from Picturebox for £5 a month and adult movies from The Adult Channel, Playboy and Television X with unlimited replays in a 16-hour period and costing £5 for SD and £6 for HD.

The remaining HD output is limited to the odd show from selected channels such as FX including True Blood and Dexter, HBO shows such as The Sopranos and Band Of Brothers and what's on offer for free on BBC iPlayer. It could certainly do with a wider range of the latest US imports (shows from Sky1, for example).

We hope that Virgin Media's promise to introduce more HD channels and rekindled relations with Sky leads to an expansion of its HD VoD content soon.

Tiscali has a triple-tuner PVR to match that offered by Virgin Media, but although Tiscali+ is capable of receiving HD broadcasts, none is available due to current limitations on network bandwidth (a situation which also applies in part to BT's Vision service).

A free seven-day catch-up service is available, featuring the most popular programmes from BBC, Channel 4 and FX.

The remaining VoD services you receive depend on which 'mix' you add to your package (costing £6 a month).

Entertainment Xtra gets you National Geographic, 4oD, Screen Gems, HBO, CNN, Warner Brothers TV and C1 (archive shows including Little Britain and Desperate Housewives).

Master the music mix

The music mix gets you videos on demand. Around 7,000 music videos from the last few decades can be viewed. These are divided into 11 V:Mix 'channels' or you can create your own channel (essentially a favourites list) and the kids' mix features Scamp (which is controllable using a child-friendly remote) and Cartoon Network Now.

Films are offered for rent from Tiscali Movies, ranging from £1.99 for classics to £3.75 for new releases.

These can be viewed as many times as you like in 24 hours. You can search for them A-Z or by actor.

Alternatively, you can supplement your subscription to get films from Sky Movies at £21.50/month or pay £5 monthly to watch unlimited films from Picturebox (from the Universal stable) or Disney Cinemagic.

Free VoD films are provided by Movies Now and Film 4.

With a recently overhauled and very accessible interface, Tiscali TV has a formidable amount of viewing on offer, albeit with the notable exceptions of an ITV catch-up service and high-definition programming.

BT Vision's VoD offering isn't as comprehensive as Virgin Media's, aimed as it is at the casual user. TV programmes and music videos can be bought individually – shows cost from 77p to download. The choice is reasonably varied, including dramas like US imports Californication, The Wire and CSI, UK shows including Shameless and Secret Diary Of A Call Girl, and documentaries from History and Nat Geo. BT Vision's 'Replay' service offers terrestrial TV highlights (from the BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and Five) from the past seven days; pay for individual shows or get a TV Replay pack for £2.93 a month.

Snazzy box

Customers can also subscribe to one or more packs offering unlimited downloads from Kids, Music, Sport and TV. They cost either £4.89 or £6.85 a month, and can be bundled in Bronze, Silver or Gold 'Value Packs' – these include the TV and TV Replay packs for free.

The pay-per-view film offering features SD and HD films. SD rentals cost £1.94, new HD releases cost £4.84 and library HD titles cost £2.88. There's also a Film subscription package from PictureBox, priced at £4.89 a month. HD film rentals can't be streamed, and take a few hours to download before they're available to view.

The Vision+ box itself is snazzy – a twin-tuner Freeview PVR which uses a dedicated chunk of the broadband connection to stream on-demand programming, so BT Vision downloads won't count towards your bandwidth allocation. BT also includes a set of Powerline adapters with the Vision+ box, so you can connect it to your home network through the mains.

But the box can be temperamental. When Wotsat tested it a few months ago, flicking through menus too fast on the remote caused the system to hang. The streaming VoD often halted, too – a more recent test of the HD offering foundered when the download failed.

Sky boxes have come fitted with Ethernet connections as standard for a while and Sky already offers broadband packages for subscribers. It all heralds the arrival of a full broadband-delivered on demand service in 2010.

Until then, we have the current piecemeal VoD offering, available free to all Sky+ subscribers. Essentially, what you get is 'push' on demand whereby shows are downloaded to your Sky+ overnight. Sky+ receivers have half their storage reserved for this purpose (equating to 80GB on a standard Sky+ or 160GB on Sky+ HD) and Sky+ HD subscribers get HD versions of films and shows where available. About 40 hours of programming is available at any one time.

Latest US imports

Shows are listed in a separate sortable menu in the Sky Guide with synopses and can be sorted A-Z or by genre.

They must be watched within a certain period (as indicated onscreen) after which they are automatically deleted. To keep them you can 'record' (e.g. transfer) them to the other half of your disc so they appear in your Personal Planner and can be treated just like any other Sky+ recording.

Adverts appear at the start of shows as standard but you can fast-forward through them.

The downside of Sky Anytime (unlike, say, Top Up TV's Anytime service) is you have no say in the type of programming you get. But to its credit Sky has worked hard to ensure a reasonable variety of programmes – films (from Sky Movies), documentaries, kids' stuff and usually the latest American imports are on tap, so there's always at least one addition worth watching.

A big bonus is that new episodes of some popular shows are made available before first broadcast. It's just a shame that, unlike the competition, there's nothing on offer from the five main channels. We hope this will be rectified when the full service launches.

The Piggy6 may not be the prettiest product we've seen, but this multi-sided slab of plastic is a useful device for anyone that wants to set up a small network at home or in their office.

At first glance, it looks like a six-plug mains power strip – albeit a hexagonal one. The neat part, though, is that the Piggy6 also works as a HomePlug networking device that allows you to set up a network using all your existing electrical wiring, rather than having to trail Ethernet cables around from room to room.

The Ethernet ports allow you to connect three computers to the device and send data across your network via it. This means that you've got an all-in-one device that provides power and connectivity to multiple computers and other devices all at once.

You'll need to have one other HomePlug unit connected to your broadband router if you want to connect your network to the internet, but it's worth it.

The HomePlug network connection isn't as fast as you can get from an all- Ethernet network – it has a maximum data transfer speed of 200Mbits per second, compared to the gigabit (1,000Mbps) speeds available with Ethernet, but that should be adequate.

The convenience of this device and its ability to be set up in minutes makes it a bargain for those who want to create a small network with the least fuss.

A power-line network like the BiPAC P104 could be just what you're looking for if your home network is cursed by WiFi blindspots, and trailing Ethernet cables around the house isn't an option.

All you need is two spare electrical sockets and a power-line networking system such as Billion's BiPAC P104 HomePlug AV 200 Ethernet Adapter Starter Kit.

By connecting your computers and/or router to the mains using the two supplied Ethernet adaptors, data is streamed over your home's electrical wiring, giving you an always-on network with the convenience of WiFi and the reliability of Ethernet.

Theoretical limit

BiPAC P104 conforms to the HomePlug AV standard, so it can achieve theoretical speeds of up to 200Mbits/sec, real-world running speeds are unlikely to come close to this. It's also compatible with other brands of power-line network adaptors conforming to the HomePlug AV standard, so you can mix brands on the same network. Setting up is easy – just plug in and you're automatically connected.

With the machines in adjoining rooms, the adaptors plugged directly into wall sockets and no other electrical appliances running nearby, the BiPAC P104 gave us read speeds of 42.08 MB/sec and write speeds of 37.92 MB/sec, which is around eight times the speeds we achieved using wireless-g.

We then tried a high-noise test by moving the laptop to a room as far away from the router as possible and plugging the adaptors into extension cables running several other electrical appliances. This had an inevitable, but far from disastrous, effect on transfer rates. Read speed dropped to 26.4 MB/sec with write speeds clocking in at 25.76 MB/sec, still far in excess of what was achieved wirelessly.

You can handily adjust the position of the three-pin plug, allowing you to use the device in a vertical or horizontal orientation. The adaptors are bulky by necessity, so this versatility is welcome when trying to fit them close to skirting boards or other plugs. An excellent touch that rounds off a very strong product.